Category: Action, Drama
Written By: Shamar (Vibez) Binns Date: 05/13/25
Thunderbolts* (The New Avengers)
Thunderbolts is a solid, emotionally grounded addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While it contains plenty of action, what truly makes the film stand out is how character-driven it is. At times, it feels less like a traditional superhero movie and more like a group therapy session for a collection of damaged people who have spent most of their lives being manipulated, controlled, or treated as weapons.*
The film brings together Yelena Belova, Bucky Barnes, Red Guardian, Ghost, Taskmaster, U.S. Agent, and the mysterious Bob under dangerous circumstances. These characters are not the confident heroes audiences normally expect to see standing beside one another. They are former villains, assassins, government experiments, and antiheroes carrying years of trauma, regret, loneliness, and guilt.
Director Jake Schreier understands that their emotional damage is not simply background information. It is the foundation of the entire story. Rather than trying to imitate the large-scale spectacle of an Avengers movie, Schreier creates something more personal and uncomfortable. He gives the characters time to confront the memories and insecurities they normally hide behind sarcasm, violence, or emotional distance.
Schreier’s direction brings a more grounded visual style to the MCU. The action feels physical, the locations appear cold and isolating, and the quieter scenes are allowed to carry just as much importance as the battles. Even when the story introduces extremely powerful supernatural abilities, the emotional conflict remains focused on recognizable feelings such as depression, abandonment, failure, and the fear of being alone.
Yelena Belova serves as the emotional center of the movie. Florence Pugh once again brings humor, confidence, pain, and vulnerability to the character. Yelena can enter a room and immediately take control of the energy, but underneath her sarcasm is someone who feels lost. She has spent most of her life completing missions for other people, and now she is beginning to question what any of it means.
Her struggle with emptiness gives the film much of its emotional weight. Yelena is not searching for another enemy to defeat as much as she is searching for a reason to continue. Pugh handles those emotions beautifully without losing the personality that made the character so enjoyable in Black Widow and Hawkeye.
Bucky Barnes is also used effectively. After years of being controlled as the Winter Soldier and trying to make peace with his past, Bucky understands what it means to believe that you are beyond saving. His experience makes him a natural leader for this group, even if he does not initially see himself that way. Sebastian Stan brings a quiet maturity to the role, allowing Bucky to guide the team without suddenly turning him into a completely different person.
Red Guardian brings much of the film’s humor, but he is more than comic relief. David Harbour gives Alexei a genuine desire to reconnect with Yelena and prove that he can still be important. His attempts to inspire the team are often messy and ridiculous, but they come from a sincere place. Beneath the jokes is a father who realizes that his daughter is struggling and does not know exactly how to help her.
Wyatt Russell’s John Walker remains one of the MCU’s most complicated characters. He desperately wants to be viewed as a hero, but his anger, insecurity, and past failures continue to follow him. The film does not erase what he did in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Instead, it shows someone attempting to move forward while still carrying the consequences of his choices.
Ghost is finally given another opportunity to exist beyond the conflict introduced in Ant-Man and the Wasp. Her abilities make her valuable to the team, but her emotional isolation also connects her to the others. Like the rest of the Thunderbolts, she has spent much of her life being used by powerful organizations and has difficulty trusting anyone around her.
Taskmaster, unfortunately, does not receive the same level of development as the other members. Considering her history and connection to the Red Room, there was an opportunity to explore how she was affected by years of control and violence. Her limited role feels like one of the movie’s biggest missed opportunities, especially in a story built around people confronting their trauma.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus continues to make Valentina Allegra de Fontaine one of the most manipulative figures in the MCU. Val views vulnerable people as tools that can be used and discarded whenever they become inconvenient. She understands the damage each character carries and uses it to maintain control over them. Her polished public image makes her even more dangerous because she knows how to transform manipulation into opportunity.
Then there is Bob, played by Lewis Pullman. Bob initially appears confused, vulnerable, and completely out of place among a group of trained killers. However, his connection to the Void transforms the story into something much larger and more dangerous. What begins as a fight for survival eventually becomes a mission to save both Bob and an entire city.
The Void works because it is not treated as a typical villain who simply wants to destroy the world. It represents the darkness that can consume someone when loneliness, fear, and depression are left untreated. The film turns an internal emotional struggle into a physical threat, allowing the other characters to recognize pieces of their own pain within Bob.
That is where Thunderbolts becomes more than another superhero team-up movie. The final conflict is not solved only by punching harder or finding a more powerful weapon. These characters must enter the darkness, acknowledge the pain surrounding them, and refuse to let one another face it alone. The film’s message is simple but powerful: sometimes saving someone means staying beside them when they cannot save themselves.*
Watching these misfits slowly become a family is the real heart of the movie. They do not suddenly become perfect heroes, and they do not forget everything they have done. Instead, they begin recognizing that their worst moments do not have to define the rest of their lives. Their shared pain becomes the reason they understand one another.
I hate to say it, but the Thunderbolts occasionally feel more like a real team than the Avengers ever did. The Avengers were assembled because of their abilities and a shared threat. These characters come together because they recognize the loneliness and damage within one another. Their bond feels personal, imperfect, and earned.
The action sequences are entertaining, but the emotional conversations are what stayed with me. Jake Schreier allows the quieter moments to matter, proving that an MCU movie does not need constant cameos or world-ending destruction to remain engaging. I was locked in throughout the movie and honestly found myself craving more by the end.
The reveal behind the asterisk is also handled perfectly. Discovering that Thunderbolts was secretly pointing toward The New Avengers changes the meaning of the entire film. These characters spend the story believing they are replacements, failures, and people nobody would ever consider heroes. By the end, they are given a name that carries enormous expectations.*
That reveal is exciting, but it is also slightly ironic. Val attempts to turn the team into something she can control and market, while the characters themselves are only beginning to discover who they want to become. Being called the New Avengers does not automatically make them heroes. Their future will depend on whether they can remain a family or become another collection of weapons controlled by someone else.
Thunderbolts succeeds because it understands that broken people are still worthy of connection, healing, and another chance. Jake Schreier delivers one of Marvel’s most emotionally honest team-up movies, supported by strong performances and a meaningful examination of mental health. It may not reinvent the superhero genre, but it gives the MCU something it has desperately needed: characters who feel human again.*